To the Editor of the "Nonru-CHiNA Dary News"
Sm,—In the absence of any response io the request of Discustep for an indication of a fair price to be paid for tobacco by the distributors of Capstan in your issue for June 27, it is; fair to: assume that the pri asked by the four Chinese dealers are more or less in keeping with the 50. per cent. depreciation of the Chi-mese dollars in terms of Sterling and US. dollars. No evidence of profiteering has been found. I hope my poor country will not be deprived of the sympathy of Discustep at a time when a fellow needs a friend.
Our correspondent apparently is bookish and not conversant with) commercial practices, else "he would **know that one can usually buy any given imported article cheaper at the compradore shops than one could possibly buy it at the distributors' own sales department, but never the vice versa, A distributor must protect his dealers and maintain the price of his products at a certain level, The dealers on their part are not supposed to sell below the fixed level but"they frequently do this for the sake of selling more and their infractions in this respect are usually tolerated by the distributor, who, however, never lowers his own retail selling price, because if he does that, he would be fighting his own dealers and killing his selling organizations. That would be a suicidal policy for the successful exploitation of a market is dependent upon the sales of numerous agents and agencies scattered all over the country'rather than upon the little retail business done at the offices of the distributor. If sympathy can be secured by supplying goods at a cheap price, China certainly deserves all the sympathy of Discustro and his friends, for the Chinese dealers have been selling foreign goods at a price quite a bit below that fixed by the foreign importers, But is it fair to withhold sympathy from 400 million Chinese just because four Chinese tobacconists have been suspected of trying to make an extra dollar out of our correspondent? When a people have been so ill-used by another people like the Chinese are suffering at the hands of the Japanese, it is only decent for all bystanders to be outspoken in their disapproval instead of looking On unconcerned, much less to imply by words or gesture that the unfortunate victims deserved the ill treatment. Grant that the four Chinese have been guilty of profiteering, they do not deserve to be mayhemed or murdered. To rejoice at the suffering of 400. million innocent com-Patriots of these four men is unjust to the extreme—it is disgusting and despicable spitefulness, If Discusren allows the dispute over the difference of the insignificant sum of $1—to switch his sympathy from China to Japan, he is placing a mighty small value on his sympathy, and yet he may have been correct as to its real worth at that. Needless to say, the Chinese ghall try very hard to carry on without depending upon hisifickle sympathy.
G. C. Shanghai, July 1.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.